to absent friends...

Packaging maths...

Number of carrier bags provided = number of items bought/2

Endorphins are cool....

2.97kg of cuteness...

Amelia Claire Noble, born 9:35pm Friday 25th January 2008, 2.97kg and she is very very cute... Will take some pictures and post them (because I refuse to join Facebook to get Christian's).

More photoshop genius...

I love the despairing labels of the images in the background.

Cool pool....

Saw this Flickr pool on BoingBoing, think its great....

All your mandarins are belong to us

I love Chinese New Year. It's fabulously kitsch and very colorful. I'm still searching for a decoration which isn't horribly tacky (and also trying to decide if I dare to hang red paper lanterns in my house). Went to Cold Storage today and I can report that I know why its hard to get good mandarins in Germany sometimes.... They are all here. Brought a celebratory bucket of individually selected and wrapped fruit.... fun fun fun
(need more hobbies)

Tisko Tansi

You've gotta love those crazy Finns....



he's a funky old guy.

Via Boing Boing (here's the full post with a few more links)

Resistance is futile....

Ok, so Apple has released a new ultra thin laptop, the MacBook Air (small enough to fit in a envelope). For the record, I'd like to say that I will be trying my hardest not to buy one... Here's a great alternative to one...

You suck at Photoshop...

Three (so far) great Photoshop tutorial videos....

You Sucjk at Photoshop 1
You Suck at Photoshop 2
You Suck at Photardshop 3

Emotional resonance

This is the closest version I can find to what I'm listening to at the moment. ('End has a start' by Editors, from the Radio 1 Live Lounge Disc 2). Think of a slightly slower, more acoustic version of this....

Some pieces of music seem to press in all the right places and affect/reflect how I'm feeling...

Just read

Just finished reading 'On Beauty' by Zadie Smith. It is easily my favorite of her three books. It tells the story of two, often warring, families in a preppy New England college town. One thing I love about the writing style, is the way the book is often written between important events (i.e. an affair) which serves to focus your attention on people's reactions to the situation more (while you try and work out what has happened). I was slightly disappointed at the end, although I'm still not sure whether this is because of the ending, or simply because the story had finished.

The Italian Job

Finally uploaded some photos of Italy (for anyone who cares). Still trying to make them look like the pictures on my computer, so don't be surprised if I replace the whole lot at some point.

Travel Accessories

Saw this and it seemed appropriate after a 12 hour flight...
Save you eyes and see the full size one here
(From Wondermark)

Photoshoppy fun

Just reposted a bunch of my photos from Heidelberg and England for really anal reasons. I'm slowly learning how to use Photoshop, and in the process
have discovered the hellish world of 'colour matching' and 'colour spaces', or in short that although my pictures look nice in Photoshop (which uses Adobe 1998 RGB colour) when I upload them, they look a bit washed out, or less bright and saturated than I decided to make them (as the interweb uses sRGB colour). So have converted them and reposted/tagged them... This doesn't make much real difference, unless you are me and compare them to the originals... but in my mind I like to think they look much brighter and more vibrant...

FAQs

Yes, I am blogging a lot at the moment.
Yes, I probably should be outside playing.
Yes, I will probably get fatter as a result.
Yes, I am answering my own, rhetorical questions
Yes, There is a good reason I'm spending Saturday afternoon in front of my laptop... just waiting for my mum to drop by on the way back from New Zealand.

For the record...

Googling your self, is, in my book, pretty damn vain.... so with that, I'm going to do a quite bit about my entry in google.... There is a reason for this, which is that Kat's dad was taking the piss at christmas for one of the things he found when he googled me...

So here's the result for 'Adam Cliffe'

Most of them are pretty dull, although my Flickr stream does come up tops, which is quite pleasing. From this list I am not:

1. Planning to hike from Leeds to Morocco

2. Dead, having been killed in the First World War (although the soldier was also from Lancashire, so perhaps part of me was...)

3. The owner of the Adam Cliffe Day Nursery in Liverpool

4. A 20 year old guy living in Brisbane (although that could be fun)

The last entry is the one I assume Stewart found... (He was particularly amused by the first few lines).

Here's a quote

my name is adam cliffe, i am very short for my age but hope to sprout up quick, i am 15 nearli 16 and love girls i love ma mum loads n ma dad too bt ma mum is alot more in ma life, i have quite alot of m8s and cn trust most ov em

Translation (for people over 30 or from abroad...)

My name is Adam Cliffe. I am very short for my age, but hope to grow quickly. I am 15, nearly 16 and love girls. I love my mum lots and my dad too, but I love my mum a lot more. I have quite a lot of mates and can trust most of them.

Good to know.

100 years....

Home sweet home....

So I'm back in Sing Sing. Landed yesterday afternoon. Slept for 12 hours, feel tired and shaky today... Am busy sorting out my life, but will post more pictures soon. Got as far as blowing up my bag yesterday, haven't got around to putting things away again yet.

Was unsurprised to discover that the baggage security people searched my suitcase (evidenced by it being unlocked and rearranged a bit). Was unsurprised because it contained an Arduino, a great piece of Italian open source electronics, which was a christmas present from my brother, which I guess looks kind of like a home-made bomb on an Xray. Also an Illy coffee tin full of random rolls of solder, small tools and forceps (which Kat politely suggested I remove from her place).
Am glad the yet me on the plane anyway...

Heidelberg in passing

Its my last day in Heidelberg today, I fly back to nice, warm Sinapore tonight. Went for a wander around town this morning, following obligatory coffee at Star Coffee. The place is still strange, here's some camera phone captured evidence...

Firstly, the Heidelberg tradition of taking your pets shopping still seems to be alive and well, as evidenced here.

















A stroll down Beggars Alley (Haupt Strasse) reveals the usually collection of bums and beggars. Sadly, Santa Claus seems to have hit hard times after Christmas. I gave him some money, after all someone has to help support his Elves, who clearly made his crutch.

Currently Listening to...

Currently listening to (and laughing lots) Best of Bootie 2007